The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-06-29
Concerning France.

A correspondent of the Hartford
Times, writing from Paris, says: "The
most striking characteristic of the
French people, both in their cities and
in the country, is their cleanliness and
neatness. No particle of dirt is al
lowed to lie on any of the streets five
minutes before it is swept up. Clean
water is flowed into the cutters, and
from there thrown over the streets
with large brooms by boys and men.
fact, scrubbed like a Yankee house
wife's kitchen two or three times a
day. Boxes containing the ashes and
refuse from the houses are set out
upon the curbs every morning, and
after the cart into which their contents
are emptied has passed, there follows
man with sprinkling can filled with
some disinfectant, which he carefully
throws over the empty box. Surely
Paris does not seem to offer much of
foothold for cholera this summer. The
country between Dieppe and Paris is
like one vast garden. There are no farm
ers here, such as we have in America.
No one lives half a mile from no.
where,' but all live in villages. The
villagers rent or buy small tracts of land
out in the country, sometimes an acre
here and half an acre there, and then
90 out from their village homes to cul-
tivate it. No fences divide these little
tracts, but the variety of the crops
they contain form visible divisions,
and corner-stOnes or stakes are all that
mark definite boundaries. Thus the
country for mile after mile may have
neither fence nor hedge, but will re-
semble a crazy-quilt," with its vari-
ously shaped patches of green, or
brown, or yellow, according to the
crops in each. The men, women and
children of the family go out together
to work in these little fields, and their
two-wheeled carts, containing whole
families, may always be seen vending
their way along the roads which wind
through the fields to the villages.
Donkeys are used instead of horses by
the poorer villagers to draw these
quaint carts, and they present funny
sight as they 60 jolting along the roads;
but these petty farmers seem contented
and happy, and certainly their lot is
more Independent than that of the peas
antry under the landlord system of En-
gland. The absence of the sound of
ones own language is more or less
compensated by the improvement of
cooking here; and the general charac-
teristics of the French resemble those
of the American more than do those of
the English, so that after all l feel
more at home in Paris than | did in
London. Paris and Parisians are alive
now, while London lives mainly in her
antiquated institutions. There is moth
ing permitted to appear old in Paris,
and nothing looks new in London.
Yet Paris is said to be suffering more
severely under the worldwide depres-
sion in financial matters than any other
city in the world. The business which
employs by far more men and women
in Paris than any other one occupation
is fine art, painting and sculpture.
Next to that come all those businesses
devoted to other luXuries and things
which in time of embarrassment are
most easily dispensed with. OF course
not all of the eight thousand artists
living in Paris are idle, but it has be-
come a serious Observation-Disclosures ques-
ton with many who few years ago
sailed on the full tide of atiluence.'